Governments in Osceola County to take defensive fiscal stand during legislative session

Legislature 2008

March 2, 2008|By Mark Pino, Sentinel Staff Writer

Many local governments will play defensively during the legislative session that starts Tuesday, keeping an eye on laws that could hurt the way they operate.

That's a switch from a normal year when cities, counties and school districts press hard for funding of local projects.

"We're pretty thin [on requests] this year because we were told there would not be a lot of money available from Tallahassee," School Board Chairman John McKay said. "It looks like that's going to be very true."

Although the school district may not get funding, School Board member Tom Greer hopes at least to get language approved for a program that will help recruit and retain teachers.

The state could create a $1 million pool of money so that districts could offer a one-time free relocation loan to teachers. The money would remain in an escrow account, and the interest would be used if needed to make good on any loans that went unpaid. Teachers would pay the $2,000 loan back through payroll deductions, Greer said.

But the veteran at lobbying lawmakers in Tallahassee doesn't hold out hope for much state funding to school districts. Lawmakers will be hard-pressed not to hurt education during the budgeting process, he said.

Guarding against unfunded mandates -- issues for which the state gives local governments responsibility without cash -- will be a priority, said Osceola County Property Appraiser Atlee Mercer.

More than 100 proposed pieces of legislation could affect the way taxes are assessed or collected, he said. And two key issues could affect the county more than any previous tax cuts. Both would make it easier for big businesses to challenge assessments.

"They are approaching the problem from the wrong direction," Mercer said. "They are ugly, big business buyout systems."

While similar measures were turned back last year, Mercer said that this year "it appears they have traction."

Getting state funding for a library at the Osceola campus of Valencia Community College remains the top priority for a lobbying group representing four of the community's governments.

Polk County's top priority is to secure funding for a new University of South Florida campus in Lakeland. The issue is critical to the county's future, a Polk spokeswoman said.

Also crucial is the ability to levy a tax for countywide transit services.

Officials say that after the 2010 census, Polk will be over the population threshold for federal funding and will need another source for new and existing transit services.

Red-light-running legislation is a priority for Kissimmee city commissioners. In addition, the city also will seek funds for some airport projects.

But the city is not asking for a lot of big-ticket items this year.

"We're taking a little bit of a different angle," said City Manager Mark Durbin. "Instead of lobbying for things, we anticipate lobbying against things that might hurt local government."